Download or read book Sherlock Holmes and the Element of Surprise written by James Taylor and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When two prison guards are found beheaded in the barren countryside surrounding Her Majesty's Prison at Wormwood Scrubs, Inspector Lestrade seeks Holmes' singular powers to determine how the murders could have been committed in separate locations with the only footprints being those of the murdered guards themselves. With Doctor Watson at his side, Holmes sets out on this new adventure and uncovers deeper mysteries still; mysteries that will not only test the detectives' powers of observation and deduction, but his skepticism of the paranormal as well.

Download or read book A Holmes by Any Other Name written by Bill Mason and published by Wildside Press LLC. This book was released on 2019-01-09 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sherlock Holmes is one of the most recognizable—and most parodied—names in western literature. Bill Mason, BSI, collects and annotates these parody names, from the first one that appeared in 1891, to the present day. As Mason says in his introduction: One of the great aspects of Sherlock Holmes is the fact that, just as the character himself is subject to endless variation, so is his name. Ellery Queen noted that the name itself “is particularly susceptible to the twistings and mis-shapenings of burlesque minded authors.” Surely, Arthur Conan Doyle, who struggled a little with what he was going to call his detective hero, could not have known just how perfect the name he finally selected—Sherlock Holmes—would be for parody, for rhyme, for the transposing of letters and sounds, for the substitution of suggestive words in the name of a comic character. Mason’s listings are an invaluable resource for the Holmsian scholar, researcher, or for those interested in whiling away a few hours with a delightful and chuckle-inspiring volume.

Download or read book The Alternative Sherlock Holmes written by Peter Ridgway Watt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1887 and 1927, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote sixty Sherlock Holmes stories, and his great Canon has become the most praised, most studied, and best-known chapter in the history of detective fiction. Over twenty thousand publications pertaining to the Sherlock Holmes phenomenon are known to have been published, most of them historical and critical studies. In addition, however, almost since the first stories appeared, such was their uniqueness and extraordinary attraction that other authors began writing stories based on or derived from them. A new genre had appeared: pastiches; parodies; burlesques; and stories that attempted to copy or rival the great detective himself. As the field widened, there was hardly a year in the twentieth century in which new short stories or novels did not appear. Many hundreds are now known to have been published, some of them written by authors well-known for their work in other literary fields. The non-canonical Sherlock Holmes literature not only constitutes a literary field of considerable historical interest, but includes many stories that are both enjoyable and fascinating in their own right. Although a large bibliography on these stories exists, and a few limited anthologies have been published, no attempt has previously been made to collect them all and discuss them comprehensively. The Alternative Sherlock Holmes does so: it provides a new and valuable approach to the Sherlock Holmes literature, as well as making available many works that have for years remained forgotten. Presented as an entertaining narrative, of interest to both the aficionado and the scholar, it provides full bibliographic data on virtually all the known stories in the field.

Download or read book Behind the Enigma written by John Ferris and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 849 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive history of GCHQ, one of the world's most tight-lipped intelligence agencies, written with unprecedented access to classified archives. For a hundred years GCHQ – Government Communications Headquarters – has been at the forefront of British secret statecraft. Born out of the need to support military operations in the First World War, and fought over ever since, today it is the UK's biggest intelligence, security and cyber agency and a powerful tool of the British state. Famed primarily for its codebreaking achievements at Bletchley Park against Enigma ciphers in the Second World War, GCHQ has intercepted, interpreted and disrupted the information networks of Britain's foes for a century, and yet it remains the least known and understood of British intelligence services. It has been one of the most open-minded, too: GCHQ has always demanded a diversity of intellectual firepower, finding it in places which strike us as ground-breaking today, and allying it to the efforts of ordinary men and women to achieve extraordinary insights in war, diplomacy and peace. GCHQ shapes British decision-making more than any other intelligence organisation and, along with its partners in the Five Eyes intelligence partnership-including the United States' National Security Agency-has become ever more crucial in an age governed by information technology. Based on unprecedented access to documents in GCHQ's archive, many of them hitherto classified, this is the first book to authoritatively explain the entire history of one of the world's most potent intelligence agencies. Many major contemporary conflicts-between Russia and the West, between Arab nations and Israel, between state security and terrorism-become fully explicable only in the light of the secret intelligence record. Written by one of the world's leading experts in intelligence and strategy, Behind the Enigma reveals the fascinating truth behind this most remarkable and enigmatic of organisations.

Download or read book The Pearl Thief written by Elizabeth Wein and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2017-05-04 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Don’t miss Elizabeth Wein’s stunning new novel, Stateless Before Verity . . . there was Julie. When fifteen-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart wakes up in the hospital, she knows the lazy summer break she'd imagined won't be exactly what she anticipated. And once she returns to her grandfather's estate, a bit banged up but alive, she begins to realize that her injury might not have been an accident. One of her family's employees is missing, and he disappeared on the very same day she landed in the hospital. Desperate to figure out what happened, she befriends Euan McEwen, the Scottish Traveler boy who found her when she was injured, and his standoffish sister, Ellen. As Julie grows closer to this family, she witnesses firsthand some of the prejudices they've grown used to-a stark contrast to her own upbringing-and finds herself exploring thrilling new experiences that have nothing to do with a missing-person investigation. Her memory of that day returns to her in pieces, and when a body is discovered, her new friends are caught in the crosshairs of long-held biases about Travelers. Julie must get to the bottom of the mystery in order to keep them from being framed for the crime. This exhilarating coming-of-age story, a prequel to the Printz Honor Book Code Name Verity, returns to a beloved character just before she first takes flight.

Download or read book Wolf Pack written by Bob Carruthers and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-01-21 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Once you heard that pinging sound you knew they had got to you, then the depth charges came. Terrible, just terrible." Kurt Wehling, u-boat survivor The steel coffins was the name given to the U-boats of the Kriegsmarine by their own crews. Their fatalistic view of the war was certainly justified; it is estimated that seventy-five per cent of the 39,000 men who sailed in the U-boat fleet paid the ultimate price as the tide of war turned inexorably against Hitler's Germany. This is the illustrated history of the U-boat war from the perspective of the men who sailed into battle in the service of the Third Reich. Drawing heavily on the accounts of the last remaining survivors, 'The U-boat War' traces the grim story of the rise and fall of the grey wolves. The memories of the brief days of the "happy times" of superiority and success were soon replaced by the stark terror of the enfolding nightmare as the realisation dawned that the hunters had become the hunted. Written by Emmy award winning author Bob Carruthers, this powerful account of the U-boat war features extensive personal recollections, rare photographs and extracts from contemporary propaganda magazines producing a vivid picture of what it meant to fight beneath the waves.

Download or read book Seizing the Enigma written by David Kahn and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2012-02-02 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An absorbing and thoroughly well documented account” of WWII naval intelligence and the Allied hunt for the Nazi code machine known as the Enigma (Warship). From the start of World War II to mid-1943, British and American naval forces fought a desperate battle against German submarine wolfpacks. And the Allies might have lost the struggle at sea without an astounding intelligence coup. Here, the author brings to life the race to break the German U-boat codes. As the Battle of the Atlantic raged, Hitler’s U-boats reigned. To combat the growing crisis, ingenious amateurs joined the nucleus of dedicated professionals at Bletchley Park to unlock the continually changing German naval codes. Their mission: to read the U-boat messages of Hitler’s cipher device, the Enigma. They first found success with the capture of U-110,—which yielded the Enigma machine itself and a trove of secret documents. Then the weather ship Lauenburg seized near the Arctic ice pack provided code settings for an entire month. Finally, two sailors rescued a German weather cipher that enabled the team at Bletchley to solve the Enigma after a year-long blackout. In “a highly recommended account with a wealth of materials” Seizing the Enigma tells the story of a determined corps of people who helped turn the tide of the war (Naval Historical Foundation).

Download or read book The Lost Romanov Icon and the Enigma of Anastasia written by Carlos Mundy and published by Thames River Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Retired MI6 agent Rodney Mundy goes on a dangerous mission to find a lost holy icon which, if discovered, could be the key to solving one of the bloodiest and most enigmatic episodes of history - the disappearance of the Romanovs and the fate of Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last tsar Nicholas II. During his mission Rodney discovers not only the truth about Anastasia, but also that the Vatican was involved in the rescue operation of the Imperial Family in 1918. The truth about their survival has been suppressed from the public. www.thelostromanovicon.com. http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-lost-Romanov-Icon-and-the-Enigma-of-Anastasia/200394259973743

Download or read book The Music Box Enigma written by R.N. Morris and published by Severn House Publishers Ltd. This book was released on 2020-06-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Could a mysterious music box hold the key to unlocking the puzzle behind a gruesome murder for Detective Inspector Silas Quinn? London, 1914. Despite a number of setbacks, rehearsals for The Hampstead Voices' Christmas concert are continuing apace. The sold-out event is raising funds for war refugees, and both Winston Churchill and Edward Elgar are expected to attend. But the most disturbing setback of all occurs when the choirmaster, Sir Aidan Fonthill, is discovered dead at a piano, a tuning fork protruding from his ear. Detective Chief Inspector Silas Quinn and his team from the Special Crimes Department at New Scotland Yard soon discover that Sir Aidan had a number of enemies, but who hated him enough to carry out such a heinous crime? Could the answer be linked to a mysterious music box delivered to Sir Aidan's house shortly before the murder, and can Silas solve the puzzle of the music box enigma and catch the killer before the concert takes place?

Download or read book The Parthenon Enigma written by Joan Breton Connelly and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-01-28 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Built in the fifth century b.c., the Parthenon has been venerated for more than two millennia as the West’s ultimate paragon of beauty and proportion. Since the Enlightenment, it has also come to represent our political ideals, the lavish temple to the goddess Athena serving as the model for our most hallowed civic architecture. But how much do the values of those who built the Parthenon truly correspond with our own? And apart from the significance with which we have invested it, what exactly did this marvel of human hands mean to those who made it? In this revolutionary book, Joan Breton Connelly challenges our most basic assumptions about the Parthenon and the ancient Athenians. Beginning with the natural environment and its rich mythic associations, she re-creates the development of the Acropolis—the Sacred Rock at the heart of the city-state—from its prehistoric origins to its Periklean glory days as a constellation of temples among which the Parthenon stood supreme. In particular, she probes the Parthenon’s legendary frieze: the 525-foot-long relief sculpture that originally encircled the upper reaches before it was partially destroyed by Venetian cannon fire (in the seventeenth century) and most of what remained was shipped off to Britain (in the nineteenth century) among the Elgin marbles. The frieze’s vast enigmatic procession—a dazzling pageant of cavalrymen and elders, musicians and maidens—has for more than two hundred years been thought to represent a scene of annual civic celebration in the birthplace of democracy. But thanks to a once-lost play by Euripides (the discovery of which, in the wrappings of a Hellenistic Egyptian mummy, is only one of this book’s intriguing adventures), Connelly has uncovered a long-buried meaning, a story of human sacrifice set during the city’s mythic founding. In a society startlingly preoccupied with cult ritual, this story was at the core of what it meant to be Athenian. Connelly reveals a world that beggars our popular notions of Athens as a city of staid philosophers, rationalists, and rhetoricians, a world in which our modern secular conception of democracy would have been simply incomprehensible. The Parthenon’s full significance has been obscured until now owing in no small part, Connelly argues, to the frieze’s dismemberment. And so her investigation concludes with a call to reunite the pieces, in order that what is perhaps the greatest single work of art surviving from antiquity may be viewed more nearly as its makers intended. Marshalling a breathtaking range of textual and visual evidence, full of fresh insights woven into a thrilling narrative that brings the distant past to life, The Parthenon Enigma is sure to become a landmark in our understanding of the civilization from which we claim cultural descent.

Download or read book Coping with Surprise in Great Power Conflicts written by Mark F. Cancian and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-03-23 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surprise has always been an element of warfare, but the return of great power competition—and the high-level threat that it poses—gives urgency to thinking about surprise now. Because the future is highly uncertain, and great powers have not fought each other for over 70 years, surprise is highly likely in a future great power conflict. This study, therefore, examines potential surprises in a great power conflict, particularly in a conflict’s initial stages when the interaction of adversaries’ technologies, prewar plans, and military doctrines first becomes manifest. It is not an attempt to project the future. Rather, it seeks to do the opposite: explore the range of possible future conflicts to see where surprises might lurk.

Download or read book The Spoken Books Uprising Box Set 1 written by D. T. Kane and published by Eremite Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-24 with total page 845 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Reading Books can get you killed." The series that reviewers have called "Sanderson-esque" and "Genius!" For the first time ever, get the first three parts of this new epic fantasy series in one place! In addition to three novels, the box set includes two, never-before-seen essays by the author about his inspiration for the series and also artwork depicting each of the three main characters! A free preview of Part IV is also included. Part I: The Acktus Trials In the land of Oration, magic is cast by reading aloud words of power from Spoken Books. Only a select few, the Speakers, are born with the ability to do so. But after a disaster nearly destroyed Oration, society grew to fear the Speakers' power and they were hunted and enslaved, never taught to read. Now they live in oppression, unable to use their magic unless a spell is first read aloud to them. Each year, young men and women from Oration's ruling Libraries compete in the Acktus Trials, a journey that takes them through the wilds of Oration to the ruined city of Tome. Once Oration's capital, it is now abandoned, though the Great Library at its center still holds a wealth of Spoken Books. As Speakers are no longer taught to read, they also cannot write, so new Spoken Books have not been created in hundreds of years. The discovery of a new Book is a coveted prize for any young noble. Baztian is a slave to one of Oration's poorer Libraries. When he is selected to accompany his master on the Actkus Trials, he thinks his life is over. The wilds are treacherous, his master incompetent, and their fellow competitors set on winning, whatever the means. But Baz also has a secret—one that could get him killed, but one that also makes him the most valuable of assets during the Trials. Baz can read, and after he saves his master from certain death, he strikes a deal—his secret kept safe in exchange for aiding his master in completing the Trials. But can Baz really help a young man who thinks of him as property? And even if he can, there is much he doesn't know, like the evil that lies in wait beneath the ruins of Tome. Part II: Declaimer's Discovery *Potential Spoilers Below* Baz and his master are called upon to suppress an uprising among the slaves of Fortune, Oration's wealthiest city. But after an attack separates Baz from the rest of his group, he's unwittingly caught up in the very rebellion his master is trying to stop. And as if things couldn't get any worse, Baz discovers that the most powerful man in Erstwhile might know his secret. A secret that could get him killed. Surrounded by enemies and friends he doesn't trust, can Baz survive and help the slaves of Fortune to freedom? Part III: Declaimer's Flight *Potential Spoilers Below* Baz and his friends are on the run, allies at a premium, as they search for the savior who will lead the slaves of Oration to freedom. When no one believes that Baz knows who that savior is, he finds his closest supporter is none other than his one-time master, a member of the ruling class against whom the rebels are fighting. When Baz returns to where his adventure—or is it a nightmare?—began, his path finally becomes clear. But even then, there are forces working to betray him, both external and in Baz's own head. Once more, he must face the dark terror beneath the ruined city of Tome, while simultaneously battling the trauma he suffered in the dungeons of Leamina Library. And that's all before the dragons show up. Will Baz persevere and find Oration's savior?

Download or read book The Universal Sherlock Holmes written by Ronald Burt De Waal and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Planthunter written by Georgina Reid and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exciting and refreshing call to arms, The Planthunter is a new generation of gardening book for a new generation of gardener that encourages readers to fall in love with the natural world by falling in love with plants.

Download or read book 25 Surprising Marriages written by William J. Petersen and published by Masthof Press & Bookstore. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This fascinating book reveals that the marriages of many Christian leaders were anything but dull. In fact, the dynamic personalities of great leaders, mixed with the difficult circumstances and sacrifices of their vocations, made for many surprises along the marital journey. Writing in an entertaining narrative style, Petersen describes the quiet strength of Polly Newton, Emma Moody, and Susie Spurgeon, long-suffering women who helped refine their "diamond-in-the-rough" husbands. He recounts the "storybook romance" that was William and Mary Bryan's marriage and the mutual admiration society of Billy and Nell Sunday. But Petersen also sheds light on unions that were far from blissful, including those of authors Hannah Whitall Smith and Grace Livingston Hill. Whether the marriages in these pages were solid or shaky, they all hold valuable lessons for dealing with universal issues such as financial worries, temptation, separation, and personality differences."--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book Thinking Inside the Box written by Adrienne Raphel and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-03-16 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This cultural and personal history of crosswords and their fans, written by an aficionado, is diverting, informative, and discursive.” —The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice A delightful, erudite, and immersive exploration of the crossword puzzle and its fascinating history Almost as soon as it appeared, the crossword puzzle became indispensable to our lives. Invented practically by accident in 1913, when a newspaper editor at the New York World was casting around for something to fill empty column space, it became a roaring commercial success almost overnight. Ever since then, the humble puzzle has been an essential ingredient of any newspaper worth its salt. But why, exactly, are the crossword’s satisfactions so sweet? Blending first-person reporting from the world of crosswords with a delightful telling of its rich literary history, Adrienne Raphel dives into the secrets of this classic pastime. Thinking Inside the Box is an ingenious love letter not just to the abiding power of the crossword but to the infinite joys and playful possibilities of language itself.

Download or read book On the Origins of Speaking written by Lord Walsingham and published by New Generation Publishing. This book was released on 2016-10-22 with total page 822 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a serious book examining the original sounds and meanings of languages right back to the Stone Age - up until now believed to be impossible. But it can also be seen as tracing the overwhelming sexual orientation of human thinking for the last six hundred thousand years or more - when we were only hominids, squatting round the camp fires at the mouths of our caves - to keep the sabre toothed tigers out. It was here that our original bare bottomed language committees first got to grips with meanings and their audible representation. The committees were convened as a result of the taming of fire, the high tech of the day. It was a cosy environment in a cold and hostile world, and the unaccustomed warmth led to an outburst of amorous inclinations, and the need to express them in words. Ka they thought echoic of the strike of flint on flint, and so striking, and so the tenderising of raw meat for which they had already been making "e;hand axes"e; for at least half a million years. It is from ka-ka for tenderising with a hand axe that our cooking comes! The flame did it for you. Flint knapping left a lot of "e;debetage"e; or waste flakes, whence ka-ka also came to mean waste - including today human waste. Metaphor led to odd bedfellows. All this evidence is decoded from an exhaustive forty year research into over a hundred languages, many of them dead ones, where like flies in amber our original Lithic (Stone Age) language roots are still embedded. There is nothing salacious in the tale. It simply tells it as it is and was, and it is not going to go away. This short version is abstracted from a major work of over 600 pages, and there is nothing in it which the ordinary man in the street (and his sister) can not easily follow. It ranks quite highly in the order of useless information, but it has its indirect usage. If you understand how all our languages have actually come about - the product of human whimsy - you will be that much less likely to believe some of the sillier alternative views put forward by ideologically inclined placemen. Lastly, how has Lithic Language been cracked? The answer lies in "e;semantic triangulation"e;. Believe it or not, all our languages today (over 6000) bear traces of the original meanings given to the sounds as we first learned to articulate them, and it is possible to work backwards using the current meanings in numerous languages to home in on the original source meanings which are common to the current ones. Then we can see if they make sense as a first guess by our Stone Age (hominid) forebears of what they thought of as the "e;natural"e; meanings of the sounds. They didn't do thinking very much. That is how they all guessed the same, or nearly the same. So we are probably on the right track: language was all spun by human whimsy, (over a few hundred millennia), from only a baker's dozen original articulated sounds. The English language alone reached a million words last year.